February 19th, 2011

For the joy of its obsessed fans, Radiohead finally released a new album, titled“The King of Limbs”. According to Tom Davenport from music site DIY, the release was named after one of the oldest trees in Europe. It is very short – only 8 tracks, average lenght 4 mins. I don’t think TKOL adds anything new to Radiohead’s career, and I think it’s an average album. It’s not bad, but it certainly ain’t no Grammy material, like “In Rainbows”. As usual, a couple of special editions were released, including vinyls and a ton of artwork. Thom Yorke has been to art school and the visual has always been an important part of Radiohead’s work, evolving along with the songs. A music video has been made for “Lotus Flower” (track 5) and released on Radiohead’s official You Tube page on the same day the album was released.

Video embedding has been disabled by You Tube, you can see the video by clicking on the following link:

1. Bloom: this is the song I unliked the most. It’s an electronic tune, and I think it’s monotonic. It drags on, never grows.

2. Morning Mr. Magpie: this song was introduced to fans a few years ago during a special webcast session, and it mutated from angry vocals and power strings into a hypnotic overlay of loops of the same riffs with some very radioheadian intermissions. I prefer the original version presented in the webcast. Many times Radiohead changed songs and they succeeded (Motion Picture Soundtrack, There There, Spinning Plates), but not this time.

3. Little by Little: this is a typical Radiohead song. Lots and lots of chords and electronic arranges, Thom’s signature vocal. Great song.

4. Feral: another electronica. This is not a favorite, too, for the same reasons I’m not too keen on “Bloom”. I don’t think songs like this would do very good in the live shows.

5. Lotus Flower: a Radiohead classic, the best song in the album. It’s also the work song and you can check the video above.

6. Codex: another Radiohead specialty, a heartbreaking piano ballad with haunting, ghostly vocals. “…jump of the edge, into a clear lake, no one around…”

7. Give Up the Ghost: one more Radiohead classic. This opens with birds singing, then Thom Yorke voice appears, with an acoustic guitar beautifully arranged on the background. Awesome song.

8. Separator: it’s a good song to finish the album. It’s also the longest song in an album that could indeed have been longer. A friend was speculating about the likeliness of a second album, still in 2011.

P.P.S.: Finally the record abel re-allowed the embedding/sharing of the video!

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